This fourth edition has a special focus on global climate change, including
a new greenhouse index tabulating contributions to global warming by individual
countries. Brazil, China and India now lead the United States and the Soviet
Union in greenhouse gas emissions. India's methane emissions (from rice paddies
and livestock) are second only to those of the United States. Deforestation in
1987 occurred at a rate eight times that calculated by the United Nations in
1980, although estimates are difficult. Other statistics cover such topics as
energy, global systems and climate, population and health.

Started five years ago by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the
World Bank, the UN Development Program and World Resources Institute, the TFAP
underestimated the need for new institutional mechanisms. Eagerness to invest in
the forestry sector has overshadowed the original goal of arresting
deforestation, and the plan must be significantly reworked. Recommends the
convening of an international forum outside the current TFAP structure to
achieve this, and other steps to strengthen the program.

Discusses how environmental issues such as ozone depletion, global warming
and deforestation can be resolved by upgrading and fine-tuning the mechanisms
already used in more than 100 environmental treaties, and by drawing on the
experience of existing global and regional environmental institutions. Suggests
methods for overcoming two fundamental drawbacks in any international treaty
process: only minimum standards tend to be adopted because all parties must be
pleased; the time lag is lengthy for drafting and adopting standards and
bringing them into force.